I spent this last Thursday through Saturday Nordic skiing (!!) at Tahoe xc just outside of Tahoe City. There was enough snow from this last storm to groom (!!) a good amount of trails for classic and skate skiing. (My apologies for all the exclamation points, but really, skiing in October?!!--wait, more exclamation points...) Anyway, there was still more snow up around Donner Summit, a beautiful sight, and hopefully prelude to this winter. My point is, I was surprised by the extent of this last storm. Also, breaking trail on skis or snowshoes was just horrible; the snow that fell was still powdery (!!) and would not support skis or shoes. Now, everything was melting and consolidating fast as I left on Saturday. Skiing was pretty much over at Tahoexc, I believe; still, out in the trees on north facing slopes there's a surprising amount of October snow. I'm talking about 6500-7000 feet. Extrapolate from that as you will.